From Aretha Franklin to Kanye West, the Homecoming season has brought some of the world’s biggest musicians to The Mecca. While other schools like Florida A&M University and North Carolina A&T University announce their lineups early, Howard keeps theirs secret until the day of.
Howard University’s 101st homecoming celebration begins Oct. 19 and runs through Oct. 26, with a week full of events for alumni, students and the broader community. The highly anticipated Yardfest concert takes place on Oct. 24.
Students like Jayden Tatum, a senior TV and film major from Baltimore, show mixed excitement about the upcoming festivities.
“Honestly, Howard’s disappointed [me] with artists year after year. I don’t really have expectations anymore,” Tatum said.
Planning Yardfest is a year-round effort for the Office of Development and Homecoming Relations, but the process of finalizing the lineup and dates starts once MEAC releases the football schedule.
“We are always thinking about the next Homecoming,” said Vice President and Interim Chief Development Officer Princess Gamble, who oversees Homecoming festivities. “I would say a real nine to ten solid months of focused planning goes into Homecoming.”
The Yardfest lineup starts in the spring with musical recommendations from the Howard University Student Senate and the 1867 Undergraduate Student Assistantship, according to Gamble. A student committee also crafts the theme for Homecoming, which this year is “One-of-One.”
“We then go and try to make all of those things come true for students,” Gamble said.
She researches artist availability and costs — the hardest part of planning the Yardfest lineup, she says.
Tatum says he hasn’t been satisfied with the artists over the past few years but still enjoys Yardfest for the experience overall.
“I’m just excited to hang out with my friends and experience a fully packed yard,” Tatum said.
Another student who echoes that is Rasiah Worthy, a senior journalism major, sports administration minor from Detroit, Michigan.
“I want to say I want us to have a good lineup, but I know we never do, which is why this year I’m actually going to another Homecoming,” Worthy said.
Worthy said she’s not looking forward to a great lineup this year for Yardfest. In past years, students and attendees have seen major performers like Drake, GloRilla and Lil Uzi Vert on The Yard.
“The cost of talent has escalated so much and we are one of the last HBCUs that does a free concert,” Gamble said.
North Carolina A& T had a star-studded Homecoming concert lineup this year, featuring PartyNextDoor, Queen Naija and GloRilla. Tickets ranged from $119 to $226.
Gamble pointed out that now, more HBCUs are charging for their Homecoming concerts. Specifically, schools like Spelman, Morgan and Morehouse have all started to charge cover fees.
Both seniors agree the best part is spending time with friends and the community.
“[I’m] just happy to see everybody who comes to our campus who’s not a Howard student and just to have fun,” Worthy said.
Ifunanya Ofomata, a junior economics major from Lagos, Nigeria, also believes her peers have low expectations for Homecoming this year.
“I genuinely don’t think people are excited for this year’s Homecoming, most people I know don’t even know when Homecoming is,” Ofomata said.
Ofomata adds that a lineup reveal could help boost excitement. Across HBCUs nationwide, it’s become a trend to build anticipation with grand lineup reveal events. Usually, at these types of events, the artists who will perform at the main Homecoming concert are revealed to a large crowd of students.
From there, the lineup sequence is spread further via social media and eventually becomes general knowledge to students within that campus and beyond. Howard, however, chooses not to participate in that trend.
Kayla Adams, a sophomore health science major from Orlando, Florida, believes that Howard’s stature as an institution warrants a lineup reveal.
“They might as well, I mean, people know what Howard is — so why not just do a big lineup and tell us who’s coming,” Adams said.
“We are always keeping a finger on that pulse of what other markets are doing, but I have to reiterate, most of the time those are paid shows,” Gamble said about Howard’s lineup secrecy.
Since Howard’s concert is free, the lineup stays secret for security reasons and in case of last-minute changes, according to Gamble.
“We try to leverage talent that may have paid shows in the areas that labels or companies are willing to sponsor, but in a lot of those cases, there are clauses that say we can’t promote them,” Gamble said.
Limiting promotion also helps manage crowd size on campus during Yardfest.
“We don’t want to be overwhelmed with crowds because we do try to get nationally recognized talent, and it is important that we are secure with that,” Gamble said.
Last year, D.C. Metro reported that the Shaw/Howard University Metro station had the highest ridership record in history during the Homecoming weekend. Gamble expects that this Homecoming will be no different.
Still, both Adams and Ofomata are prepared to expect the unexpected when it comes to this year’s artists. After last year’s surprise appearance from Blac Chyna — who got engaged on stage — many students are curious about what surprises this year might bring. However, at the top of Adams’ and Ofomata’s wishlist are artists such as Ravyn Lenae, Bia and Roddy Rich.
Copy edited by D’Nyah Jefferson – Philmore
